Next Wednesday, I’ll head to Google headquarters to cover the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” event–which will put the spotlight on the first version of the company’s mobile operating system designed for tablets. Join me here for live coverage starting at 10am PT. And you can head there now to send yourself an e-mail reminder. See you then, I hope…
Broken promises are part of technology’s natural cycle, but Leo Apotheker, HP’s new boss, says that’s not going to happen anymore at his company.
From now on, HP will only announce tech products that are a few weeks away from shipping, Apotheker said in an interview with the BBC. “”HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn’t have,” he said. “… That’s a simple management decision, I don’t need to re-engineer the tanker to do that.”
In other words, HP is taking a cue from Apple by announcing only real products instead of lofty ambitions. Apotheker even suggests as much: “I hope one day people will say ‘this is as cool as HP’, not ‘as cool as Apple’,” he said.
Google has rolled out a preview version of Android 3.0 “Honeycomb”–the first tablet-friendly version. Looks intriguing. Here’s hoping some of the improvements–including the elimination of the dreaded hardware buttons–make their way back to Android smartphones.
At last, Google has posted platform highlights for Android 3.0, the version of its OS designed with tablets in mind.
The short version: Android 3.0 has software-based navigation instead of physical buttons, tabbed web browsing, big-screen Google apps and developer tools for creating modular, panel based apps that work on tablets or phones.
But most of these features are old news if you saw Google’s teaser video and Motorola’s Xoom announcement at CES. The real revelation in this documentation is how Android 3.0 handles multitasking. In Google’s words, with my emphasis:
As users launch applications to handle various tasks, they can use the Recent Apps list in the System Bar to see the tasks underway and quickly jump from one application context to another. To help users rapidly identify the task associated with each app, the list shows a snapshot of its actual state when the user last viewed it.
This makes me think Android tablets’ approach to multitasking will more closely resemble the iPad than RIM’s Blackberry Playbook.
Is the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet going to support Android applications? Sounds crazy to me.
The Consumer Electronics Show is still on my mind — and the products I found are the topic of this week’s TechBite.
I still have lots of products in the queue, so these are short blurbs; if something gives you a jolt, I’ve included links so you can dig deeper.
I get the weekly rap sheet from our local sheriff’s department, and I’d say that in auto and home burglaries, the notebook is the grab-and-run favorite.
Maybe you can’t prevent the theft, but AbsoluteSoftware‘s LoJack for Laptops might be able to recover your notebook. The software installs on a hidden location on the drive (MBR or partition tables; the company’s cagey with details) and is untouchable by the run-of-the-mill knucklehead thieves.
Motorola’s upcoming Xoom tablet is going to cost $699. Or maybe $799. Both prices are rumors rather than confirmed realities, but they seem to point to the Xoom starting at a much higher price than the iPad, which costs $499 in its most minimalist configuration (16GB of storage and no 3G).
If the Xoom goes for $699–or maybe even $799–it’s not because Motorola has grossly overpriced the thing. Specswise, it’s a far more potent device than the iPad, with a dual-core processor, four times as much RAM (1GB vs. 256GB), a slightly larger screen with more pixels, two cameras vs. no cameras, a MicroSD slot, and a standard 3G data connection that will be upgradable to 4G for free. Motorola clearly decided to err on the side of making the Xoom beefier than the current iPad–an entirely logical strategy given that it will surely compete with an iPad 2 that boasts some of the same specs that it does. But anyone who hasn’t bought an iPad because $499 sounds like a lot of money is even less likely to spring for a Xoom.
India’s Economic Times has an ominous report on the country’s $35 Android tablet, which at one point was supposed to ship by January 15.
According to the report, there’s been a misunderstanding between the vendor and the Indian government over a bank guarantee. India’s financial rules require the guarantee — reportedly $13 million — in case the vendor doesn’t come through with the project.
Not surprisingly, that was a problem given that the components alone in each $35 tablet cost more than its selling price. One government source told the Economic Times that each tablet cost the vendor roughly $125 in parts. That’s a long way from the $35 manufacturing cost India was touting last year, and even further from the $20 that the government hoped to charge students after a subsidy.
To me, the problems seemed obvious all along. Even if the manufacturing costs were close to $35 per tablet, India’s plan to make the product profitable for vendors was a long shot, banking on sales to other countries at higher prices to offset the low cost in India. And if it’s not dirt cheap, it’s just another mediocre budget tablet.
India isn’t giving up yet. The government will issue a new tender and hopes to have the matter “sorted out in a few weeks,” according to a senior official, who also said that “The Sun will rise in 2011.” India could be looking to source components from suppliers in Taiwan and Korea, but again, it’s going to be tough, if not impossible, to hit the desired price point. Gartner analyst Vishal Bhatnagar told the Economic Times that $35 won’t even cover the cost of a screen and a microprocessor.
Yesterday, a spate of stores reported that an Acer sales executive had predicted the slow death of netbooks as tablets take off. Some took the news as an opportunity to tap-dance on the netbook’s grave. But now Acer is saying that it was all a big misunderstanding.
Back when we didn’t know for sure if the iPad really existed, there was a rumor that Apple expected to sell ten million of them in the tablet’s first full year on the market. Many observers were skeptical. Me, I didn’t take a stance–I just said that it was hard for outsiders to crunch Apple’s numbers, and I had fun looking back at sales figures for past Apple products. (Total Apple I sales: about 200 units, in an era when that wasn’t bad.)
Well, Apple released its quarterly financials today, and we now know the ten-million-iPads-a-year rumor was off. After nine months, Apple had already sold 14.8 million tablets. Not bad for a product that was supposed to be an embarrassing flop. (The lesson, as always: It’s pointless to analyze anything based on an utter absence of facts…and at least as pointless to read such analysis.)
